The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

With prices rising for just about everything, when it comes to utility bills in homes and businesses, efficiency is more important than ever. Working in construction, GreenSavers owner and Sisters resident Robert Hamerly saw that need firsthand while installing cost-effective machinery and insulation in new builds. The benefits of construction standards and heat pump systems were undeniable and because of that, 15 years ago, Hamerly launched his company, GreenSavers, to install current technology into existing Central Oregon homes. Upgrading to leading-edge technology has made a difference for his clients.

Hamerly says he’s been working in construction for most of his life. When he was attending business school, he worked construction during holidays and summers to help pay for school and generate spending money.

“GreenSavers was born out of the housing recession of 2007 and 2008,” he said. “I was partnered with a green builder, and a lot of the technologies we were excited about like spray foam insulation, heat pumps, and really tight envelopes were being applied in new construction. Then we saw the new construction market falling off a cliff. The question was how to take all these cool technologies and apply them to existing buildings. That’s what led us down this path, with heat pumps as our expertise.”

Hamerly lives with his wife and children east of the Sisters airport.

“We built our home here five years ago. We have three kids in the school district, two in middle school and one at the elementary school. We love the close-knit feeling living here,” said Hamerly from his office in Bend.

GreenSavers has current and past clients in Crossroads, Timber Creek, Black Butte Ranch, Coyote Springs, and the surrounding Sisters Country, and they’re ready for more.

Over the years, Hamerly has stayed true to GreenSavers’ core concepts of insulating homes, air sealing them, putting in highly efficient heat pumps and water heaters and space heating equipment.

“We offer experience with mechanical systems that improve efficiency in homes.

Technology has come such a long way in the last twenty years.

Prior to that a lot of people needed propane for backup; heat pumps didn’t work very well under 30 degrees or so.

Now, heat pumps we install can do full capacity to -17 degrees and still operate efficiently.

They are way more applicable to Central Oregon’s climate than they were 10 to 20 years ago and work in all weather conditions.

A home’s cost of operation versus cadet heaters or an electric furnace is about one-third the cost.

We’re putting systems in people’s homes that are having significant energy savings.

Past the energy savings, one of the cool things about these systems is you get efficient air conditioning as well.

Each year, we’re setting records with how many hot days we’re having and how early in the season the triple digits are coming.

It’s becoming a necessity to have air conditioning,” said Hamerly.

GreenSavers is the biggest Mitsubishi heat pump dealer in Oregon.

“Propane had its place, but it’s connected to commodity pricing on the world marketplace, so when something happens in Ukraine the price of your propane goes up,” said Hamerly. “That’s one of our main differences from our competitors; we focus on heat pump technology and have fully adapted it and encourage it while a lot of other HVAC companies are still doing fossil fuels systems.”

Like most industries, there have been some supply chain issues, but Hamerly says most GreenSavers clients are doing planned product replacements as opposed to emergencies.

“During COVID, things did get a couple of months out; now those timelines are starting to reduce. If it’s a breakdown or forced replacement, we have the ability to shift our install schedules, or limp along a customer’s current system, or we can deploy auxiliary heaters,” said Hamerly.

To keep machinery running at top efficiency, GreenSavers offers a biannual home performance plan.

“We find as technology gets more sophisticated maintenance becomes even more important. If you forgo maintenance the efficiency will suffer. The heat pump technology has such a significant impact on the cost of operation; they’re so much cheaper to operate. Customers see that in their lowering utility bills. We also can pull rebates from the utilities that sweeten the pot for our customers,” said Hamerly.

The Hamerly family and GreenSavers are fully invested in Sisters Country.

“We want to be good participants in the community,” Hamerly said. “GreenSavers sponsored a baseball team last year and will do it again next year. We’re going to be here for good. We recreate here and hang out at Hoodoo in the winter and Peterson Ridge in the summer. This is our spot.”

For more information about GreenSavers or to set up a complimentary consultation, there’s an online scheduling calendar on their website: https://GreenSavers.com, or call 541-330-8767.

The company is also hiring and offers living wage career opportunities both inside the office and in the field.